INDUSTRIALIZATION AND IMPERIALISM, 1750 - 1900

INDUSTRIALIZATION AND IMPERIALISM, 1750 - 1900

The Industrial Revolution
In the second half of the eighteenth century, significant changes in the economy of Western Europe began to transform the region. Collectively the forces of change, which brought about a shift from an agrarian economy to one based on machine manufacture, are called the Industrial Revolution. One scholar, David Landes, has argued that the Industrial Revolution "changed man's life more than anything since the discovery of fire." For Landes, the Industrial Revolution was above all technological in its nature and significance; but the changes in technology that it brought about also ushered in massive social, economic, cultural, and political change on a global scale. The sources and scholarly interpretations in this module are intended to provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution, and on what it may have been like for people to experience it.

...